The present invention relates to an absorptive article such as a sanitary napkin, a panties liner or an incontinence pad and, more particularly, to an absorptive article for improving the contact with the body of a user thereby to eliminate the back leakage.
In the absorptive article known in the prior art, such as the panties liner, the sanitary napkin or the incontinence pad, an absorber made of cotton-like pulp is sandwiched between a liquid-impermeable back sheet of a polyethylene sheet or a polyethylene sheet laminate nonwoven fabric and a liquid-permeable top sheet of a nonwoven fabric or a liquid-permeable plastic sheet.
Various improvements have been made on the absorptive article of this kind to make various means for preventing the leakage of a bodily fluid. One of these bodily fluid leakage preventing means is a technique in which grooves are formed of heat embosses together with a centrally high portion of the absorber. In Patent Document 1, for example, there is proposed a technique in which a homogeneously laminated absorber of pulp is pressed and deformed with a fit emboss contouring the centrally high portion to form the centrally high portion and in which a leakage preventing groove is formed around the centrally high portion thereby to prevent the diffusion (or leakage) of the bodily fluid.
In Patent Document 2, moreover, there is disclosed an absorptive article including a liquid-permeable layer on the side to abut against the skin of a user, a liquid-impermeable layer on the side not to abut against the skin, and an absorbing portion sandwiched between said liquid-permeable layer and said liquid-impermeable layer. The absorptive article includes a rising portion rising from the central portion of the absorbing portion to the side of the skin abutting face and extending in the longitudinal direction of said absorptive article and one or more rows of grooves formed on the side not to abut against the skin of said absorbing portion corresponding to said rising portion and extending in the longitudinal direction of said absorptive article.
In Patent Document 3, moreover, there is proposed a sanitary napkin including: an absorptive element for receiving a bodily fluid from the side of a using face and holding the same therein; a leakage preventing sheet disposed on the back side for preventing the leakage of the bodily fluid from said absorptive element to the back side; and gather cuffs having an elastically shrinking member for a gather cuff sheet disposed at the longitudinally intermediate portion of the product and on the two side portions of the product and raised on the skin side of the user by the shrinking force of the elastically shrinking member when the product is mounted. Said absorptive element has a centrally high portion extending in the longitudinal direction across a blood extrusion portion and made high at the widthwise central portion on the side a widthwise central portion. Said gather cuffs are constituted such that their shrinking forces may act over the longitudinal range corresponding to the range across at least the blood extrusion portion. Embosses are formed on the two sides of said centrally high portion of said absorptive element and over the length range across at least the blood extrusion portion. Those embosses are formed into such a shape at the blood extrusion portion as to bulge widthwise outward from the front and the back.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-11-33054
Patent Document 2: JP-A-10-328232
Patent Document 3: JP-A-2001-95842
All the inventions of the aforementioned Patent Documents 1 to 3 eliminate the leakage of menses or the like by fitting the absorber on the body shape of the blood extrusion portion. However, the rising shapes of the individual absorbers are formed of simple shapes composed of single arcuate curves.
As a matter of fact, however, the shape of the blood extrusion portion of a woman is complicated. Even if the absorber can be held in substantial contact with the vicinity of the blood extrusion port of the woman, the perineal region from the vaginal opening to the anus on the back side has a stereo shape of a pit so that the absorber cannot be held in contact with the perineal region. As a result, the menses or the like, which could not be absorbed in the vicinity of the blood extrusion port, may not be absorbed by the perineal region thereby to cause the back leakage.
Therefore, a main object of the invention is to provide an absorptive article for bringing an absorber into close contact with not only the blood extrusion port but also the vaginal opening of a woman thereby to improve the contact with the body.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an absorptive article having an absorber sandwiched between a liquid-permeable top sheet and a back sheet, characterized:
in that said absorber includes a centrally high portion in the widthwise central portion of said absorptive article and made high on the side of a using face, and a pair of left and right embosses formed individually on the two sides of said centrally high portion and extending substantially in the longitudinal direction of said absorptive article; and in that said paired left and right embosses include a first bulging emboss having its individual emboss lines so formed of curves having centers of curvature on the center side of the absorptive article as to form an enlarged area of the emboss spacing width, and a second bulging emboss having its individual emboss lines so formed of curves having centers of curvature on the center side of the absorptive article as to continue to the rear portion of said first bulging emboss through an intermediate arcuate emboss formed of curves having centers of curvature on the outer side of the absorptive article.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an absorptive article in accordance with the first aspect of the invention in which the absorber further includes a reduced shape emboss having its individual emboss lines so formed of curves having centers of curvature on the outer side of the absorptive article as to continue to the front side of said first bulging emboss and to form a reduced area of the emboss spacing width.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided an absorptive article of the first or second aspect of the invention in which the absorber further includes a rear side emboss formed to continue to the rear side of said second bulging emboss and extending substantially along the longitudinal direction of the absorptive article and a third bulging emboss having its emboss lines so formed of curves having centers of curvature on the center side of the absorptive article as to form an enlarged area of the emboss spacing width at intermediate positions closer to the rear side of the rear side emboss.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided an absorptive article of any of the first to third aspects of the invention in which the absorber further includes an auxiliary emboss so formed at the widthwise center portion of the absorptive article corresponding to said intermediate arcuate emboss as to extend substantially along the widthwise direction of the absorptive article.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided an absorptive article according to the third or fourth aspect of the invention in which the absorber further includes second rear side embosses so individually formed on the outer sides of and at a spacing from said rear side emboss as to extend in the longitudinal direction of the absorptive article.
According to the invention thus far detailed, the second bulging emboss is formed to continue to the rear side of the first bulging emboss through the intermediate arcuate emboss. As a result, the absorber can be held in close contact with not only the blood extrusion port of a woman but also the perineal region. As a result, the contact with the body can be improved better than the product of the prior art so that the back leakage can be reliably prevented.
A mode of embodiment of the invention is described in detail in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings.